Average Rating: 8.6/10
Overall Rating: 7.8/10
1. English Lane (Skit)
2. Blue Slide Park (8/10)
3. Party on Fifth Ave. (9.5/10)
4. PA Night (7/10)
5. Frick Park Market (9.5/10)
6. Smile Back (10/10)
7. Under The Weather (10/10)
8. Of The Soul (6/10)
9. My Team (9/10)
10. Up All Night (10/10)
11. Loitering (6.5/10)
12. Hole in My Pocket (Skit)
13. Diamonds and Gold (7.5/10)
14. Missed Calls (9/10)
15. Man in the Hat (10/10)
16. Knock Knock (9/10)
17. Donald Trump (8/10)
18. One Last Thing (9/10)
The number of white rappers has been increasing since Eminem reached unbelievable levels of critical and commercial success, and honestly, most of the time I felt like Eminem was the only white rapper who could actually rap until the 2009-2010 era, where two white rappers from two very different districts started gaining large amounts of attention. The first of those two white rappers is Yelawolf from Alabama, which belongs to the southern region of hip-hop, and the second is Mac Miller who is from Pittsburg, which is in the northern region of hip-hop. They both have albums coming this year, and since Mac Miller’s album is coming out first, it’s Mac’s turn to go first, and since it’s his turn it’s time to see if he can live up to expectations on his debut album “Blue Slide Park”.
Mac’s style can be described as more or less new school yet old school. His style in a way brings back the 80s style rap which was used by artists or groups such as Sir Mix a Lot, Beastie Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince or Public Enemy, and at the same time adding his own elements like deeper lyrics or a more modernized type of flow, and honestly, that’s why he’s a good rapper, while his style is not really perfected or not really my favorite, I think that style will catch on and be perfected at some point, and when you look at this album, that’s what it’s about, showing off that style, experiencing it and expanding it, so it would be interesting to see if Mac can perfect that particular style it in his debut.
Blue Slide Park was really a different album compared to a lot of other albums out right now. This album didn't only have Mac’s style all over the place but every track on the album was just Mac and Mac himself, he had no guests on the album, and honestly, that had its own ups and downs. The fact that’s the entire was album just Mac showed his style on complete and full display with no delays what so ever, so it’s clear that that’s a benefit, and the down side about that factor of the album though was that the album got really lonely at some point , I mean, if an artist needed his or her style in full display, it’s fine, but then they should have guests on one at the very least one or two tracks on the album. The issue was that the album felt too lonely, and that’s clearly something that effected on the music on this album.
Blue Slide Park was a collection of 16 tracks. All of the tracks where all Mac and just Mac alone, and as I mentioned, while the album had everything on display, it did feel really lonely at some point, but that doesn’t mean that the album didn’t have any highlights though. Out of the 16 tracks there was actually one big batch of excellent tracks, which was exactly what I expected from Mac and his new school-old school style.
As I mentioned, the album had many highlights, some of which were party tracks, and they included: “Party of Fifth Ave.” which was a party track which had new school lyrics, a new school flow, along with an old school styled beat, “Up All Night” which was another party song, but this time it felt like an old-school rock inspired track, “My Team” which really had a living fast-paced party flow and style, and “Knock Knock” which was one of my favorites off the album, it had a great flow, great lyrics and better yet, a really strong 80s style beat.
Some of the album’s best tracks were also some of the tracks that had real concepts. “Frick Park Market” was one of them, it was it was about Mac blowing up to the public and reaching fame, “Smile Back” was a track which was in a way a dedication and a warning to Mac’s haters, “Under The Weather” was about getting back up and thinking positive, “Missed Call” was about how Mac’s life changed after reaching fame, “Man In The Hat” was a really uplifting song about getting up and making it, and what made it a great and different track was that it was written in a very relateable way, and “One Last Song” which was a track where Mac mainly introduces himself to the world and shows his plans for his life and how he’s planning to live.
There were some weaker tracks on the album though, some of them include “Of The Soul” which had a decent concept, but it’s flow really threw me out of the mood due to it being a slow track right on the middle of a fast paced album, “PA Nights” which was a flawed about Mac’s high school life, it’s concept was great, but Mac’s flow on the song felt off beat to me, and “Loitering” which had a great flow and beat, but it just felt like Mac was rambling random stuff along the whole song.
Blue Slide Park overall proved Itself to be a great album. It did feel lonely, it did not yet perfect Mac’s style, but you gotta hand it to him, Mac showed his skills completely on this album, and that’s what this album was about. Blue Slide Park fulfilled what Mac wanted it to fulfill, and to make things better it actually proved that Mac is an actual great white rapper, and just another great new rapper to compete and more importantly continue the streak of this new strong group of rookies and new rappers. Let’s see if this year’s other new white rapper, Yelawolf, can steal the attention when his debut album comes out.
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